Robbie Swinnerton serves up morsels from the foodiest city on the planet

04/12/2015

Dug in the morning in a Kyoto bamboo forest and served the same evening in Tokyo. Slowly grilled over charcoal till the outer sheaths are charred and the inside is sublimely sweet and creamy.

That's the way they're prepared by chef Jun Kurogi, at his namesake restaurant in Yushima.

But these are no ordinary bamboo shoots: they are shirako takenoko [白子筍].

It's not just that these are the very first of the season from Kyoto — they appear around late March (any earlier in the season, and the bamboo shoots served in Tokyo are sourced from Kagoshima or elsewhere in Kyushu).

What makes the shirako so special is that they are dug from deep down in the ground.

Bamboo shoots always have to be extracted before they break the surface of the soil and start converting their sugars into green, fibrous sprouts.But shirako are excavated from much deeper down, close to the root system — at least a meter below the ground.

This means they have very little of the bitter astringency of even the freshest takenoko. They are also a beautiful creamy white colour, hence their name (literally, shirako means "white child").

That's what is lurking under the charred exterior…

Chef Kurogi pares off the charred outer layer, slices the soft inner flesh and brushes on a shoyu-based sauce.

Then he serves them with a generous scoop of aoyose — white miso mixed with crushed kinome (sansho leaf).

So simple so good, with lots of sweetness and only just the very slightest hint of aku bitterness at the end.

Needless to say, shirako takenoko are extremely rare and similarly pricy. In fact, you are unlikely to find them — even in Kyoto.

Chef Kurogi doesn't leave anything to chance when it comes to sourcing his takenoko. He has bought his own land in Kyoto, with its dedicated bamboo forest, where the shoots have been dug for generations.

He was brought over as part of the remarkable and groundbreaking series of events, called "In Cibo Veritas" ("in food there is truth"), organised by Bulgari Il Ristorante in Ginza, featuring some of Italy's finest contemporary chefs.

As in the previous dinners (this was the 3rd of the 7-part series), it was a collaboration with Bulgari's own in-house chef supreme, Luca Fantin. It was (needless to say) memorable!

Having tasted Massimo's cuisine in Modena a couple of years ago (my blog post is here…), I was eager to see which of those classics he was going to serve in Tokyo. I was also really looking forward to trying some new dishes — as well as discovering more of Luca's beautiful creations.

I'll put some longer descriptions up later. For now I'm going to let the images speak for themselves. Starting with these appetizers…

…including this amazing rose (made with slivers of beet and rose jelly), inside an actual red rose on the stem:

03/12/2015

Just back to Japan from Singapore, where I attended the awards ceremony for the annual Asia's 50 Best Restaurants. This was its third year, but the first under new voting rules*, which meant that there was quite a shake-up in the rankings this time.

The number of countries represented was up – Cambodia and the Philippines featured for the first time – with some making a bigger splash than before, especially host Singapore (10 on the list; up from 8) and South Korea (3; from 1).

Conversely, this meant a drop in the number of restaurants from Japan represented on the list (8 down from 10), with Ishikawa and Sawada both mystifyingly dropping out of sight.

Here are the ones that remain in the rankings (last year's positions in parentheses):

2 (2) Narisawa ナリサワ

4 (5) Nihonryori RyuGin 日本料理龍吟

12 (25) L'Effervescence レフェルベソンス14 (42) Hajime ハジメ

33 (34) Takazawa タカザワ

40 (43) Sushi Saito 鮨さいとう

44 (38) Sukiyabashi Jiro すきやばし次郎

49 (22) Quintessence カンテサンス

Congratulations to one and all, especially to Hajime Yoneda (Hajime), not just as the Highest Climber this year, but for representing Osaka and reminding us there is so much more to dining in Japan than just the restaurants in Tokyo; and to Shinobu Namae (L'Effervescence), for such a strong showing. And – of course – to our two Yokozuna Grand Champions, Yoshihiro Narisawa (Narisawa); and Seiji Yamamoto (Nihonryori RyuGin)!

At the same time, several of the other Top 50 restaurants have direct links to Japan, from Waku Ghin (9th; Tetsuya Wakuda's Singapore operation) and Tenku RyuGin (24th; the Hong Kong outpost of RyuGin) to Shinji by Kanesaka (32nd; Singapore). While others are Japanese in inspiration, such as Wasabi by Morimoto (29th; Mumbai) and Nihonbashi (31st; Colombo).

Meanwhile, there was a massive round of applause for Tetsuya Wakuda for winning the Lifetime Achievement award: Brilliant work!

But for me, the best moment of all was the announcement that Hidemi Sugino had won the title as Asia's Best Pastry Chef. A huge and totally deserved appreciation of the brilliant (and very self-effacing) master pâtissier!